Sebastian Vettel will bid farewell to F1 at the end of the year, and his teammate Lance Stroll doesn't deny it: he will miss the "fun" partnership with the four-time champion
Sebastian Vettel's retirement at the end of the 2022 season impacted motorsports on Thursday (28). The four-time world champion announced he is leaving the track, as he wants to spend more time with his family. There was, however, an attempt by Aston Martin to renew Seb's contract. The team had made clear in recent days its desire to continue with the German driver.
Once the decision was made, his teammate, Lance Stroll, did not deny it: he will miss #5. Both have been racing together since 2021, when Vettel joined the refigured team of the elder Stroll, Lawrence.
"I definitely won't miss the long meetings after races, I think he's good at that," he joked. "Joking aside, he's been a great teammate and someone who's been really easy to work alongside, it's been fun," he added.
Vettel's career
Even though he was not one of the main drivers on the grid in the 'Drive to Survive Era', which brought so many new fans to the World Championship, Vettel's career is one of the most impressive of all time in more than 70 years of F1.
Since he entered the grid and made his debut in the 2007 US GP, already in the final part of the season, then aged 20, Vettel has competed 289 races and has 11 more to go. Thus, he will reach 300 GPs. In this period he won 53 races, was on 122 podiums, scored 57 poles, and won four world titles. Numbers of a historical heavyweight.
Sebastian is tied with Alain Prost as four-time world champion, behind only three other drivers with more achievements; he is the youngest driver in history to win and pole in the same weekend (122 races).He is the youngest driver in history to have pole position and victory in the same weekend (21 years and 73 days, Italian GP 2008), and the youngest in history to have pole position, victory and fastest lap (21 years and 353 days, British GP 2009).
He is, along with Nigel Mansell in 1992, the driver with the most wins from pole in a single year (nine, 2011). Vettel is the third driver with the most wins and laps led, the fourth with the most poles, and the seventh with the most races in history.
Despite his start at BMW, Vettel only drove eight races there, still on loan from Red Bull. The following year, 2008, he started at Toro Rosso and shone. Even with many retirements at the end of the year, he knew how to work to put the team back on track and make a magical second half of the year, winning the Italian GP, with pole position and everything.
Red Bull was the obvious destination, and so it was for 2009. That was when everything changed for the team, which made an impressive leap in the grid and left the giants Ferrari and McLaren behind. The title didn't come because of the Brawn GP phenomenon, but Red Bull was well positioned. Vettel was vice world champion and emerged as favorite for 2010.
Then, yes, began one of the most dominant moments of any driver in the history of F1. In the year he would be only 24 years old, Vettel knew how to fight. With five wins in the year, including in three of the last four races, he narrowly beat Fernando Alonso to win the Vettel world title. He dominated in 2011 to be bi and had to deal with Alonso again for the tri in 2012.
In 2013 there was no contest: Vettel was four-time champion and still closed the season with nine straight wins - ten in the last 11, 11 in 13 and 15 wins in all.With the arrival of the 'Hybrid Era' in 2014, the order of forces changed and the rise of Mercedes was meteoric, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominating. Vettel seemed despondent during the year, and in October he set his sights on Ferrari the following year. For the next six years he defended the red color.
As early as 2015, when Ferrari was going through a rebuild after the departures of Luca di Montezemolo, Stefano Domenicali, and Alonso, Vettel won three times. Starting in 2017, things changed. Ferrari jumped up and put itself in a position to challenge Mercedes, with Vettel starting the 2017 and 2018 championships very strongly and leading for several times especially in the early half of those years. Both championships have major throws that demarcate Sebastian's exit from contention: the accident with Max Verstappen at the start of the 2017 Singapore GP and the run off the track at the 2018 German GP. Hamilton got the better of him in both cases.
After the mistake in Germany, that just after a win in England, where Hamilton always reigned, Vettel did not recover. The end of that season was bad, while Charles Leclerc arrived the following year and quickly became the darling of the team, which again had changed boss and president, with the departure of Maurizio Arrivabene and the departure and death of Sergio Marchionne. Even without the dreamed-of title, Vettel won 14 races for Ferrari, which puts him second only to Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda.
The exit was announced for the end of 2020, but still before the championship started. Aston Martin, which returned to F1 as a brand after almost 60 years, took advantage and signed with Vettel. In the first year, the four-time champion was second in the Azerbaijan GP and achieved the same result in Hungary, but on Monday he was disqualified for a technical infraction related to the amount of fuel delivered at inspection. A team problem. The expectation was to have a stronger team in 2022, but it didn't happen. Aston Martin has regressed and thinks about how to get out of the last positions this year and in the next ones. Something difficult even with the bold plans, including a new factory and wind tunnel, more employees, and the tradition of the brand.
A career nothing less than glorious, in an undeniable way. Averse to social networks, in recent years, Vettel increased the way he dealt with social issues, always at the circuits, taking advantage of the F1 platform. During this period, he defended climate issues and the bees, a species that is under global threat of extinction - something that would change the ecosystem of the planet, since the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and anti-war issues after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as anti-racism. Now he will have more time to address other issues.